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US, ID: Nampa Woman To Sue Twitter
http://fox12idaho.com/global/story.asp?s=10975630
Nampa Woman To Sue Twitter
Posted: Aug 22, 2009 11:51 PM
Nampa - A transgender candidate for Nampa mayor is suing Twitter after someone created a fake account under her name and posted lewd comments. While social media like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have their benefits, they also provide a lot of opportunity to falsify someone's identity. And for Nampa mayoral candidate, Melissa Sue Robinson, it's gone too far.
"I checked google and I saw something very lewd, very malicious, just down-right nasty with my name on it," said Melissa Sue Robinson.
A shock for transgender mayoral candidate Melissa Sue Robinson. Someone has created a Twitter account under her name with the title "woman with a penis". The fake account has also posted lewd tweets to a Michigan reporter, who said he immediately blocked the feed.
"I emailed Twitter and called them and did the same thing with google and asked them to remove it and that was month ago and they haven't removed it," said Robinson.
Robinson is now working with an attorney on a defamation of character and violation of privacy lawsuit. They'll try to get the name of the person who created the account, and then sue them.
"If you're just a transgender person living your life out you're working hard doing things to help society people shouldn't be malicious against you," said Robinson.
Robinson is not the first person up in arms against the social networking site. Tony La Russa, the manager of the St Louis Cardinals, sued after someone posed under his name, he eventually dropped the suit after Twitter canceled the fake account. And you may remember a few months ago Governor Butch Otter was caught up in a fake Twitter scandal, when someone posed under his name.
"It also states if it's clearly a parody of someone else if its clear that it is they probably won't do much about it unless you actually complain about it even then what they'll likely do is only take it down, " said Justin Foster, a social branding expert.
Foster says it can be very difficult to find out the identity of someone posing as you.
"Typically you just ask around say do you know who this is, if you can contain it in a geographic or local area you can typically find out who it is it didn't take long to find out who the fake Butch Otter was," said Foster.
He also says the best way to handle someone impersonating you on Twitter is to first use humor. Tell everyone you know that it's not you, and encourage them to send as many tweets to that account as possible.
Then as a last resort publicize it, similarly as you would hang up a false check in a restaurant.
Nampa Woman To Sue Twitter
Posted: Aug 22, 2009 11:51 PM
Nampa - A transgender candidate for Nampa mayor is suing Twitter after someone created a fake account under her name and posted lewd comments. While social media like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter have their benefits, they also provide a lot of opportunity to falsify someone's identity. And for Nampa mayoral candidate, Melissa Sue Robinson, it's gone too far.
"I checked google and I saw something very lewd, very malicious, just down-right nasty with my name on it," said Melissa Sue Robinson.
A shock for transgender mayoral candidate Melissa Sue Robinson. Someone has created a Twitter account under her name with the title "woman with a penis". The fake account has also posted lewd tweets to a Michigan reporter, who said he immediately blocked the feed.
"I emailed Twitter and called them and did the same thing with google and asked them to remove it and that was month ago and they haven't removed it," said Robinson.
Robinson is now working with an attorney on a defamation of character and violation of privacy lawsuit. They'll try to get the name of the person who created the account, and then sue them.
"If you're just a transgender person living your life out you're working hard doing things to help society people shouldn't be malicious against you," said Robinson.
Robinson is not the first person up in arms against the social networking site. Tony La Russa, the manager of the St Louis Cardinals, sued after someone posed under his name, he eventually dropped the suit after Twitter canceled the fake account. And you may remember a few months ago Governor Butch Otter was caught up in a fake Twitter scandal, when someone posed under his name.
"It also states if it's clearly a parody of someone else if its clear that it is they probably won't do much about it unless you actually complain about it even then what they'll likely do is only take it down, " said Justin Foster, a social branding expert.
Foster says it can be very difficult to find out the identity of someone posing as you.
"Typically you just ask around say do you know who this is, if you can contain it in a geographic or local area you can typically find out who it is it didn't take long to find out who the fake Butch Otter was," said Foster.
He also says the best way to handle someone impersonating you on Twitter is to first use humor. Tell everyone you know that it's not you, and encourage them to send as many tweets to that account as possible.
Then as a last resort publicize it, similarly as you would hang up a false check in a restaurant.